


Your Corner

by EldritchWhore



Category: Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, does that mean we get to meet hades, hades and persephone being tender to each other, no beta we die like men, what is fanfiction but a vehicle for all my favorite tropes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:41:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28687293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EldritchWhore/pseuds/EldritchWhore
Summary: Takes place after episode 137, ish. My imagination of a few key events we've all been waiting for. More a drabble than anything else.Hades shows Persephone somewhere special.
Relationships: Hades/Persephone (Lore Olympus)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 137





	1. Cypress

**Author's Note:**

> Lore Olympus belongs to Rachel Smythe.

Hades took Persephone to one of the places in the Underworld where things grew. A grove of cypress trees on a hill outside the city. It was one of his favorite spots, and it was very old, so he kept it isolated from the urbanity of the rest of the Underworld. There wasn’t even a road leading to it directly. After Hades parked on the little dirt road leading up to it, he offered his hand to Persephone and together they floated to the top of the hill.

She walked forward once she landed, letting the soft needles brush against the palms of her hands. Hades hung back a little bit, content to watch her explore the grove as much as she wished. He soon lost sight of her among the trees, but could see the little trail of baby’s breath grow from where she had walked. He let his hands rest in his coat pockets and exhaled, looking to the sky as his misty breath dissipated into it. It was a clear night.

Hades followed the blossoming path to an empty spot on the hill, where you could see out over the city. Persephone stood there, arms wrapped around herself. She was so beautiful, glowing softly against the darkness of the Underworld. He approached her from behind, hesitating only a moment before wrapping his arms around her shoulders, pulling her back against him in an embrace. She moved one of her hands to rest on top of his.

“It seems so far away from up here,” she said, gazing down at the cluster of lights.

“It used to take me half a day at least to walk here, back in the beginning. A little quicker to fly, but I liked the walk.”

“How often did you make the trip?”

“As often as I needed to be alone.” Hades chuckled. “Hecate used to send nymphs up here to drag me back down whenever she lost track of me. I once managed to hide up here for five days before they found me.”

He could hear the smile in her voice as she said, “It’s really beautiful.”

He laughed a little. “Most beings find the Underworld frightening.”

Persephone tsked.

“I mean,” Hades said, “It’s not unreasonable. There’s not much to find here besides rocks and dead people.”

“That’s not true,” she said.

Hades felt a gentle, feathery sensation inside his chest. “What do you mean?” he asked, unable to keep the smile from his voice.

She shrugged in his arms. “I’ve been learning a lot of things lately, about my powers, especially since . . . you know.”

He gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze to tell her he knew what she meant.

“Death is . . . important. It’s necessary, I mean. And I don’t mean that to justify what I did,” she added, panicked. Hades let his thumb rub back and forth on her shoulder, trying to reassure her. “Without it,” she continued, “nothing would be able to grow. Mortals live practically their whole lives raising children and taking care of each other, until they die. Those children have no way to repay their parents for life but to give it away to their children, and theirs after that. They all die in the end, but in a way, their lives continue, you know? And, and no plant can grow without fertile earth, which can only come from that which has died.” Persephone let out an exaggerated sigh. “I’m not making any sense.”

Hades gazed fondly down at the top of her head, waiting for her thoughts to gather her thoughts. How was it even possible for someone to be so pretty?

“I guess what I’m trying to say is—Spring isn’t about things sprouting up out of nowhere. It’s about making new life out of what is dead. Things die so that other things can live. It’s, it’s such a selfless thing.” Persephone turned around in his embrace, his hands coming to rest on her shoulders. She looked up to his eyes before turning them towards the ground in embarrassment. “Spring begins here, in the Underworld. What I do as a goddess wouldn’t even be possible without you, without what you do, I mean.”

“Kore . . .” Hades swallowed back a painful lump in his throat and leaned down to kiss her forehead. He couldn’t help it. “I—” he tried to put words together, “I’ve never heard anything like that before. Thank you.”

She glanced up to his face, a little smile tugging at her mouth. “Thank _you,_ ” she said. “For sharing such a special place with me.”

“ _Of course,_ Persephone.” Gods, it was so easy to be around her. He felt safe here, and it had been a long time. “It was hard back then, to be around other people,” he told her. “I isolated myself because it was what I knew. I had been alone for so long growing up, I . . . it’s still hard,” he confessed. “I eventually figured out that while the alternative frightens me, I don’t actually want to be alone. I’m, uh, happy to have you here, Sweetness.”

Persephone’s eyes met his again. The gravity of them pulled him in, dizzying, grounding. He felt like he was falling toward her infinitesimally, constantly growing nearer but never making contact.

“Hades,” she said suddenly, breaking away from him, turning back towards the view. “Can I tell you something?”

“Anything, Goddess.” An uneasy, sick feeling settled in his gut. The tone of her voice gave him the feeling whatever she said next would hurt.

She started pacing back and forth, chewing on her thumbnail. “I, uh.” She shook her head. “ _Sugar snaps_.”

“What is it?” he asked softly. He didn’t want to rush her. She looked upset.

“I don’t—” she rolled her eyes, mostly to herself. “I, I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Persephone.” Hades put a hand on his chest. “It’s me. You can tell me _anything._ I want to help you.”

She stopped in place to look at him. There were tears in her eyes. A long moment passed before she mumbled, “Sit,” gesturing to the patch of moss that had grown under her feet from her pacing. Hades lowered himself to the cushioned ground, leaving room for her to join him, but she started to pace again.

“So,” she started, then groaned and put a hand over her face. “I, I don’t want to tell you—no, that’s not right. I want, I want you to know, I think. No, I do. But I don’t want to talk about it. B-but Hera was here earlier, and I—” her voice cut off and she buried her face in her hands. Hades wanted to do something, _anything,_ to take away whatever was making her cry, but his instincts told him to stay put, to wait for her.

“I don’t want to be alone either,” she said, muffled by her tears and her hands.

“Sweetness,” he whispered.

She looked up from her hands. “ _Hades . . .”_ She wrapped her arms around herself and faced away from again. “So.” She swallowed. “I’m not t-telling you this because I ex-expect something from you. I mean, you don’t have to anything. You-you shouldn’t. Please.”

“Okay.” The sick feeling grew in his stomach.

“And please, try not to-to say anything until I’m done. Please.”

“Of course.”

“Thank you.” She rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath. “S-s-so a few weeks ago, right after we met, something happened. I got-I got hurt.”

Hades was going to be sick.

“I spent that day with Artemis, and Hermes, and A-a-a—” She huffed in frustration. “Apollo. He was, uh, he was, _forward_. . . and he stayed-he stayed until Artemis went to work in the Mortal Realm, and—” She was trembling.

He couldn’t move, pinned to the ground there by an insurmountable weight. The lights from the city swirled in his vision.

“He came into, into my, my room. And, um, he, he, he . . .”

_No._

“He . . . it . . . I, I tried to tell, to tell him to go, b-but he didn’t. And it, it felt like that was the on-the only, only way out. O-of TGOEM, and e-everything. So.” Persephone shook her head. “That could have been the worst of it, but he to-he took, took, p-p-pic . . .” She sighed. “He took pictures.”

 _He took_ pictures _of you, Goddess?_

“Ha-hades.” She was crying again, harder now. “It, it, it, _hurt._ ”

Hades cried too.

Persephone turned toward him again, face swollen, thorns sprouting from her scalp. “I’m so, so sorry.”

 _What? No, no, no, no._ He reached out to her, afraid for a moment that she would refuse him, but she yielded, falling with a sob to her knees in front of him, into his chest. “Kore,” he breathed into her hair. “Why are you apologizing to me?”

“Be-because I’m broken, an-and I wanted to be _good._ You’re so kind to me and I wanted . . .” She didn’t finish what she was saying.

“You’re not broken, Sweetness.” Hades tried to keep his grief from coming out in his voice. “But you don’t owe me anything. At all. And besides, it’s not your fault, and it doesn’t—it doesn’t make you any less perfect. Not to me.” She cried harder into his chest. “It’s not your fault, Sweetness. It’s going to be okay. I promise.”

Hades let her wear herself out crying, trying to keep his own feelings in check for her sake. He was angry, and distraught, and sick, and absolutely floored to be trusted by her, and every emotion fought for space in his head. He didn’t know what to do.

Persephone sat back on her legs after she calmed down, looking utterly exhausted. “Hades, I feel trapped. Like I don’t have the ability to make my own choices anymore. If I ever even had it in the first place.” She rubbed a hand over her eyes. “I never really want to be an eternal maiden but I didn’t even get to decide. And now with all of this,” she waved her hand around vaguely. “I feel like some vital part of me has died.”

“Persephone.” Hades reached out for her hands. “The last thing I want to do is hurt you, or make you feel like your experiences are insignificant. B-but I hope you believe me,” he pressed his lips to her knuckles. “You can make life out of what has died. Even this. I’m positive.”

For a moment, she looked stunned. Her eyes were wide, still teary, mouth hung open as if she were about to speak, and Hades was certain he’d said something wrong. Then she leaned forward, grabbed the front of his coat over his stomach in fists, and kissed him.

She was so beautiful. Hades felt his eyes tear up again as he kissed her back, bringing his hands up to hold her face. So small, and so soft, and so beautiful. He heard the young voice in his mind whisper to him, “I love her.” Everything was perfect. So much that had happened was awful, tragic—but this was perfect. Persephone slowly drew away, keeping herself close.

“I could kiss you forever,” she whispered, sending a feeling of warmth through his body, all the way to the soles of his feet. “But I’m freezing.” She laughed a little, lips still brushing over his. “Can we go home now, Hades?”

He brushed her hair away from her forehead. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

_Home._


	2. Little Hours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just more of Hades and Persephone hanging out and being tender to each other.

Hades groped towards the shower for a towel to slip under his knees on the floor. He didn’t dare leave the bathroom as he was. There hadn’t been much in his stomach to begin with, but every time he tried to stand another wave of nausea hit, leaving him retching up caustic bile from the back of his throat. He couldn’t stop the images bombarding his mind of Persephone, _beloved Persephone,_ being hurt like that. He knew rationally that there was nothing he could do about the past. He couldn’t stop it from having happened. Dragging himself through the torment of thinking what it must have been like for her was doing nobody any good. But still, the images came, and the hurt, and the fear, of being used.

Being caged.

He let his forehead rest on the toilet seat. A few stars winked through the high bathroom window—Hades hadn’t bothered to turn on the light when he came in—comforting in their inky clarity. The Underworld was safe, Hades reminded himself. Protected.

He finally decided to hazard a shower. He turned it on cold at first to soothe his feverish, clammy skin, waiting until he started shivering to turn the water warm. The sounds of water hitting tile blanketed him. He closed his eyes and focused on the sound, breathing evenly, bringing himself back to the present. He remembered the image from earlier tonight of Pomelia sleeping draped across Big John’s snout and laughed. The panic ebbed.

He let the water run a little longer while he brushed his teeth by the sink, keeping the bathroom hot with steam and the mirror fogged over. Fatigue again replaced the feeling of anxious restlessness as Hades stepped into underwear and sweatpants and realized he had forgotten to grab a shirt before he showered out of habit.

Hades tiptoed out of the bathroom towards his dresser to look for a t-shirt. But Persephone was awake—she had asked to stay with him to sleep, because she was godsdamned _perfect_ —and reaching out to him with a look of hazy affection.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” he said.

She hummed and grabbed his hand as he tried to pass, tugging him towards the bed. “It’s alright. Are you okay?”

He slipped back beneath the covers. “Yeah, I’m okay.” As he got comfortable Persephone wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing his jaw fondly before settling in against his shoulder. Hades hugged her close to him, childishly giddy at the sensation of holding her against his bare chest.

“What time is it?” she mumbled into his skin.

“Mm, probably around three or so.”

“What were you doing up?”

“Oh, I—I wasn’t feeling well.”

Persephone's hold on him tightened.

“I feel better now, though. Don't worry about it.”

“Good,” she said, and brushed her nose against his neck. “You smell nice.”

He chuckled quietly into her hair. They lay still for a long while, Hades not quite ready to sleep again just yet. He’d thought Persephone had gone back to sleep until he felt her fingers brushing along his shoulder. He recognized the path she took as the line of one of his scars. He suddenly felt unusually nervous—he’d gotten used to them centuries ago, but this little goddess seemed to bring out parts of him he hadn’t considered since he was young.

“Do they hurt?” Persephone’s eyes seemed so big as she looked up at him, catching starlight, shining like two great moons.

“No,” he answered. “Not for a long time.”

She smiled a little. “That’s good.” He fingertips slowly drifted up his shoulder and neck, at last scraping gently along his scalp, combing his hair back. Her hand cradled the back of his head protectively. “Sometimes,” she began, looking down, “I wish I could have been there, back then. With you.”

He frowned. “Why is that?”

Her thumb brushed soothingly behind his ear, back and forth. “I—I don’t know if I could have kept you from getting hurt, but . . .” She looked up to his face again. “Maybe I still could have helped you somehow. Looked after you.”

Hades felt like crying. “Oh, Kore . . .” He pulled her closer, buried his face in her neck, drowned in the feeling of her satin skin against his, her arms around his shoulders, cradling him to her like a child. He spoke, and the words came out muffled against her shoulder. “I think that’s the kindest thing anyone has said to me.” He shuddered—she held him tighter. “Persephone . . . please don’t leave me.” His voice broke. He hated being vulnerable like this, hated feeling small, but he couldn’t help it. Not with her.

“Never,” she said in his ear, and he lifted his face to hers. He kissed her desperately. She set her palm against his cheek, drawing him ever closer with her other arm, and settled on her back. He leaned over her, his chest against hers. He kissed every part of her he could manage, mouth and jaw and neck. “Hades,” she said, breathless. “You make me feel so wonderful.”

 _Beautiful, beautiful,_ he thought, unable to articulate what he felt. _Perfect, wonderful._ _I want to belong to her. I love her._

A sharp bark pierced the quiet, immediately followed by two strong raps on the front door downstairs. Hades pulled away to look toward the noise, drawing Persephone to him protectively. “Cerberus,” he called. The dog appeared at his bedroom door with unreal speed, awaiting his orders. “Stay with Persephone,” he told him.

Persephone grasped onto his shoulders, fear evident in her eyes, but he stood and stepped away. “It will be okay,” he told her, and went to the door.


End file.
